13 Days of Sheela Na Gig: ...and worse on Shelah’s day

It is hardly in the power of any priest in the world to hinder an Irishman from getting gloriously drunk, if he is so inclined, on the whole of the 17th of March, as well as the next day in honour of Sheelagh….—from A History of the Island of Newfoundland (1819)

St. Patrick’s day, and Sheelagh’s day (the saint’s wife) the day following, are occasions on which the mass of Newfoundland Irish revel in the full glory of feasting and drinking. They are certainly at those periods beyond any control; and they completely forget themselves, fighting and drinking, until they are overcome by the one, or laid up by the other.—from British America (1832) by John M’Gregor

It is in small towns, villages, or hamlets, in the bush, on the outside of civilisation, where drunkenness reigns on St. Patrick’s day, and worse on Shelah’s day.—from an article in The Brisbane Telegraph (1896)

It’s March 18. That means it’s Sheela’s Day.

While this holiday is no longer recognized in Ireland, there’s archival evidence to suggest that it was celebrated pre-Famine, and there’s no question that it has been celebrated in the Irish Diaspora—especially in Australia and Canada.

In Newfoundland, it seems that the phrase “Sheila’s brush” has outlasted the practice of celebrating Sheela’s Day. Sheila’s brush is a spring storm, most often one that occurs just after St. Patrick’s Day. For some, when a storm occurs just before St. Patrick’s Day, it’s Paddy’s brush. For others, as a Newfoundlander explains in this video, Sheila’s brush can happen before March 17th and, if it does, mild weather will be late in arriving.

With absolutely no knowledge of Newfoundland’s folklore, I’m going to go ahead and say that it’s never a bad idea to honor a weather goddess—not that I’m calling Sheila a weather goddess—and that, in a maritime culture, misjudging the weather is literally a matter of life and death.

Absolutely the best source I’ve stumbled upon while trying to get a sense of Sheela’s Day is a blog post from last year, which I’m just going to link to now instead of continuing to paraphrase. You have just read everything I know about the folklore of Newfoundland, but I know enough about folkloristics to trust what Robert Hiscock writes on this subject. (AND HE CITES HIS REFERENCES. I can hardly tell you what that means to me.)

So, what does Sheila’s brush tell us about the connection between St. Patrick and Sheela? What I notice first is that Paddy and Sheila are generic terms for an Irish man and an Irish woman. If you need a counterpoint to a Paddy, a Sheila’s a pretty good choice. If you already have a saint named Patrick, a weather witch called Sheila just makes sense. And, once you’ve created such a powerful couple, it’s likely that you will make up stories about them. That’s my hot take.

Whatever the relationship between St. Patrick and the Sheila (or Sheelah or Shelagh or Síle or Sheela) connected to him in folklore and legend, I am fully in favor of celebrating a female counterpart of St. Patrick on March 18.

And I some thoughts about that, including a cocktail recipe.